


The Fall of an Empire

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 20:20:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2081826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Crocker Is a seventeen year old boy. He has three siblings, and his Momma loves him very much. But he wants to know whats behind the wall his Momma keeps them in.<br/>And then he gets out.<br/>What he learned was that he knew nothing.</p>
<p>Multiple pairings. Many charachters. Non Sgrub/Sburb AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fall of an Empire

Jonathan Crocker stood next to his elder brother and sisters. They were having a bake off, and were currently waiting for their baked goods to be done in the numerous ovens in the kitchen.  
"So John, you're turning how old in three days?" Jane asked the youngest Crocker.  
"Seventeen. You knew this, sis. Momma's been tellin' everyone how proud she is an' how excited for the party everyone should be." He slumped. You were always excited when Momma said you were. No exceptions.  
"She knows." Jake said, pulling the shorter brunette into a noogie. John yelped as he continued. "She just wants ta know how many cakes ta make ya!" He cackled.  
"We are all pretty excited for this, John. You're the baby after all." Jade grinned evilly. "Jonny is almost a grown man, now. Momma's gonna cry again. Momma's favorite." The last comment held a bit of jealousy and malice.  
"I'm not Momma's favorite, Jadey. You know that, right? Janey's the heiress to the corperation. She's the favorite."  
"Yeah, Jade." Jane replied, lightly taking a bit of Jade's long black hair and braiding it. "Just because John is the baby, don't mean he's the favorite."  
Jake put an arm around his littlest sister's shoulders and grinned at her, his forest green eyes accented by his red glasses frames. "Momma loves you too. Very very much," the 22 year old said. "When are ya gonna get over this rebellious phase of yours?"  
The 19 year old girl stiffened and glared at him. "When is Momma gonna let us over the wall?" She retaliated. All three of her siblings tensed and gasped. "There has to be something out there! Haven't you ever been curious?"

John looked away, his hand going to his right shoulder. "Yes, I have." The beginning of a thick scar could be felt there, the end of it reaching down to his left hip.   
When he was ten, he and Jake had tried climbing the wall. They had seen a weird person standing in the entrance hall. He was tall and grey, like Momma. But he wore a lot of purple, and he had wavy lightning bolts for horns. He had given John and Jake a glance, and the scars across his face had made the boys run away.  
But for weeks after, John and Jake pestered Momma about where the strange Alternian had come from. Eventually, she told them that he came from nightmares that would hurt them.   
When he left, John and Jake hid behind a bush to watch the gate open. John had glimpsed something beyond the gate. It was the face of a boy, with white yellow hair and dark glasses on his face. That was what had prompted him to dare Jake to climb the wall. Jake had told him that he had to as well. So being dumb, curious kids, they tried climbing the wall.  
Momma had caught him, but not Jake, and that was the only time she had ever hurt one of her four children. She whipped him three times, hitting the same line, and then told him to let it heal on its own. It was a lesson none of them forgot. Because, if Momma was willing to hurt her baby, then whatever she was protecting them from was worth not seeing.  
But in the present, Jade blinked at John for a moment, before looking down, her glasses catching the light so her eyes were obscured. "Right. Sorry, John." He knew she was pouting.  
He grinned and waved it off. "It's fine, Jadey. Water under the bridge as Momma says." He looked at the ovens. "Surely the cakes should be done soon."  
"It's only been five minutes." Jane said. "Why don't you go for a walk? The cakes will need to cool before we make the icings for them, yeah?" She shooed the other three out of the kitchen. "I'll call you back when they're cool enough to ice."  
John sighed, knowing that Jane was going to keep to her word, and he decided to wander around. The Crocker Corps Mansion was a large red building with white trim. It had five floors and two basements. Each floor had a minimum of 15,000 square feet of space. The kitchen he had just left was huge, with twelve ovens, sixteen sinks, a lot of of counter space, and upwards of fifty fridges and freezers.  
Next to the kitchen was the dining room. It was rather large and impressive with two huge gold plated chandeliers, and gold foil wallpaper. The candlesticks were also gold, as well as the good dinnerware. Day to day dinnerware was good china with gold decals.   
The other half of the ground floor was a huge ballroom/throne room. It was where Momma met with her secret friends, though, the children were never allowed to see them. Often times, John would see someone go in, but not come out. Momma always said that they left though, so whatever.  
The next floor up was a library. So many books, John could never hope to read them all. He adored the ghost stories though. Most of them were written in Momma's home language, Alternian. Momma never explained in full, but she said that was the reason she looked different from John and his siblings. They weren't full Alternian, so they weren't grey, nor did they have horns. John was a little upset about that, but oh well.  
The floor above that was a rather extensive game room. So many Gamegrubs, and discs and cartridges that John sometimes lost himself in trying to decide what game to play and never actually got to play at all. The floor in there was soft, like a pillow, and there were half bed couch things and sofas and pillows and blankets and a huge snack bar along one wall. There were even projectors and movies in there, so he could watch things along a forty foot wall and feel like he had the vintage movie theater experience.  
The next two floors were bedrooms. His was on the fourth floor, as well as Jade and Jake's bedrooms. Momma's and Jane's were on the top floor. They weren't allowed to go into Momma's room ever since John was five. He'd found a bucket by Momma's bed that was filled with this weird dark pink stuff, and he had tried to bring it down to her to ask her what it was, but tripped and poured it down his front. He had never seen Momma turn that shade of fuchsia since.  
However, the first basement was a gym and pool. Half of the floor space was the pool, and Momma could often be found in there. One quarter was filled with work out equiptment. Jake was often down here, working out to burn off all the cakes they ate on a daily basis. The remaining floor space was a shooting range. That's where you could find Jade when she wasn't in her room, the library, or the garden.  
John didn't have any clue as to what was in the second basement. That had been forbidden to him since before he was born apperantly.  
John went down to the basement with his siblings. "Jade..."  
"We're your siblings, Jadey. Talk to us." Jake said gently, placing a gentle hand on her head.  
She smacked it away. "I hate it here. There's nothing new to do, and nobody new to talk to."  
"Momma keeps us here to keep us safe, Jade." Jake said. "It's too dangerous for us outside the walls."  
"I know!" She yelled, before hugging herself and glaring off to the side. "We're kept inside to keep us safe and to let us survive. But I don't want to survive. If I die outside the walls, then so be it. I'd rather die free then be kept as a trophy."  
"Jade--"  
"You two saw the face outside too, didn't you? On the day the purple nightmare guy came to see Momma?" Jade whispered. "The yellow haired boy? Momma told us that we were the only ones like us. Yet he was there, outside, living. His existence counters Momma's excuse to keep us locked up."  
"Jade. You don't fight against Momma's will." Jake's eyes hardened, and he was standing up straight. "Maybe that boy was there. Maybe he wasn't. Whether or not he was, Momma wants us here, with her. So we will stay here. With her. Isn't that right, John?"  
John looked at the floor, guilt nibbling at the pit of his stomach. He was more like Jade than he let on, mostly from fear of being whipped again. "Yeah. We will stay with Momma. No matter what we do. She's our Momma."  
The elevator they were in reached the basement, and Jade stormed out to the shooting rage, er, range. Jake sighed and looked at John as they both stepped out. "She's never going to accept reality, is she? Her head is up in the clouds."  
John nodded, his thoughts drifting over to the boy again. He wanted to know. How was life out there so awful? It seemed better than being inside a cage for the rest of your life.  
"Hey, Jake? What's your earliest memory?" John asked quietly, sitting of a bench near a treadmill that Jake was about to get on.  
"What do you mean, John?"  
"What's your earliest memory?"  
Jake stood there for a few moments, his eyes going hazey. "A woman. She had dark hair, like us and Momma. But her face was colored like ours. Her eyes were a color between Jade's and mine. But she had your smile, as well as the light freckles accross the bridge of your nose. She was saying something to me. I think Janey, Jade and you were there too... Then...red... and fire.... and she w-was laying on the floor, and Momma came in. She picked you up. I think I tried to hit her. Then... nothing."  
John watched with wide eyes as Jake spoke. "Whether it's a dream or not, The woman has always seemed important to me... But Momma says that it was only a dream, and I should forget it. So I try not to think on it soo much." The green eyed man gave his little brother a half hearted grin. "I'm going for a run now." And he got on the treadmill and started running.  
John took that as a sign to find something else to do. He went to a cupboard in the corner and pulled out a red bathing suit. Everything in this damn house was red and white. He went behind a screen and changed into the bathing suit, before going over to the pool. There was a huge black mass in the middle of it.  
"Hey, Momma?!" He called out.   
The mass shifted, and a face emerged. A beautiful face, with black lips and fuchsia eyes ringed with gold. Freckles spotted just around the edges of her features and they were currently glowing in the dim light of the pool area. She swam to the surface. Two elegant gently curving horns broke the surface of the water before the rest of her head did. Her hair was flat against her head, some unruly locks clinging wetly to her face.  
"Hey Bay-by Mine. Water you up to?" She grinned, revealing her sharp shark-like teeth.  
"I was wondering if I could swim with you for a while. Everyone else is busy."  
"Watchu thinkin? A'course my bay-by can swim wit me." She opened her arms out to him, and he grinned before jumping in.   
He surfaced near her, and swam into her arms. She hugged him, gently brushing his hair out of his face as she purred softly. "What's wrong, Bay-by?" She asked softly, as he nuzzed her shoulder.  
"I don't know, Momma... Jade's been getting more rebellious, and Jane's been working so hard with learning everything she needs to know when she takes over and Jake is so antsy it's hard to have a full conversation with him. And you're so busy with everything you usually do, so I guess it's just that I'm feeling lonely." He said, his words slightly muffled by her shoulder as she did all the work needed to keep them afloat.  
"Aww, Bay-by Mine. If you wanted attocean, you could have just told me. How else are beaches supposed to know what you want if you aren't strait to the point?" She booped his nose with a grin and he giggled.  
"I didn't want to bother you." He said softly. "Some days its seems like you don't want to talk to us."  
"Bay-by Mine, I aint ever gonna wanna knot sea you. Nor talk to you. You are my Bay-by Mine. I'll always make time for you. And your siblings as well. Got that?" She kissed his temple and he smiled at her.   
"Yeah. Thanks Momma."  
"Now, let's swim before my next meeting, okay?" She said, letting him go. He nodded and started swimming laps for a while with his Momma giving him tips on how to better his technique.  
When Betty Crocker had to leave, John got out and got dressed as well before wandering the various levels of the house. Jane had called them back and John won the bake off with his giant chocolate-caramel cookie with chocolate glaze dip.


End file.
